When a Board of Aldermen committee made changes to St. Louis' community development block grant recommendations, it showed the city's legislative branch asserting itself against a power shift to the executive.

But not everybody was happy -- including the agency that gave the city the funds in the first place.

When St. Louis changed how it divided out community development block grants, it marked a major sea change in how St. Louis government functions -- shifting power toward the mayor's administrative umbrella and away from individual aldermen.

Every week, St. Louis Public Radio’s Chris McDaniel joins the St. Louis Beacon’s Jo Mannies and Jason Rosenbaum to talk about the week’s politics. Pinch-hitting for Chris this week was St. Louis Public Radio's Rachel Lippmann.

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon. - After weeks of legislative debate over the new process for splitting up the money, the St. Louis Board of Aldermen gave final approval to a bill allocating $16.7 million in federal block grants. The bill passed with 20 "yes" votes, five "no" votes, one "present" vote and one abstention.

Development and social service agencies are taking stock today after the St. Louis Board of Aldermen gave preliminary approval to a measure that distributes more than $16 million in federal grants to agencies throughout the city.

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: The Board of Aldermen is mulling over how to divide the city’s share of federal community development block grant funds. Instead of being divided up among all the wards, the block grants would be distributed this year through a competitive bidding process administered by the Community Development Administration.